


Weakness

by clonewarsandchill



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Anakin Skywalker is a Brat, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 03:24:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11660616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clonewarsandchill/pseuds/clonewarsandchill
Summary: “No,” Anakin says, muffled against a couch pillow, “I don’t want to hear your excuses.”Mace sighs again. Anakin absolutely wants to hear excuses – or, more likely, apologies – but Mace has none to give him.





	Weakness

“I just don’t understand why you had to come down so hard on me in front of the rest of the council,” Anakin says bitterly, and Mace pauses to wonder, again, why the man is pacing around his quarters in the middle of the night. He has his own answer – it was Mace himself who offered the invitation, and Mace himself who opened the door upon Anakin’s late arrival – but it’s far easier to pretend he had no choice in being exposed to this latest whirlwind of Skywalker melodrama as Anakin bodily throws himself onto Mace’s couch.

Mace sighs. “Anakin.”

“No,” Anakin says, muffled against a couch pillow, “I don’t want to hear your excuses.”

Mace sighs again. Anakin  _absolutely_  wants to hear excuses – or, more likely,  _apologies_  – but Mace has none to give him. Anakin made a foolish mistake and was chastised for it.  _End of discussion_.

He’s a sensitive man and always has been; Mace knows it started with his mother, who adored him and coddled him as best as she could manage in such terrible circumstances, but it’s Obi-Wan’s doing too. He could never be stern with Anakin, not as a starry-eyed padawan and not as a perpetually pouting adult. Mace isn’t sure if Anakin has ever actually spent more than ten minutes being in trouble in his entire life.

He should  _double-down_  on his earlier assessments of Anakin’s rashness and arrogance. He should  _remind_  Anakin that these are not games they play, that lives are always at stake and Anakin’s feelings shouldn’t take such precedence in his life. He should,  _in the very least_ , stop feeding into this illicit entanglement of theirs, and perhaps resign from the council – if not leave the order entirely. Who is he to advise the man when he himself is so self-indulgent?

“Mace,” Anakin says, softly. Mace’s eyes move to him immediately, finding Anakin sitting up again with the pillow in his lap, the shadow of his padawan uncertainty on features too old to carry them. “I didn’t mean to screw up so bad,” he says, earnest now, the pillow tumbling to the floor as he sits up straighter, “I was just trying to –”

“I know,” Mace says reflectively, and  _force-damn this man_. He doesn’t say the obvious things – Anakin knows exactly where he screwed up and why, his protests aren’t in defense of his actions but instead to salvage his bruised ego and his desperate need for approval. Mace’s shoulders slump just a bit, because he already knows he’s about to make it worse. “Come to bed, Anakin.”

And _stars_ , how Anakin’s eyes light up for that, his skin glowing with a pleased blush that Mace knows leads to places his Jedi oath can’t follow. He stands up from the couch, eyes ducking beneath lashes Mace finds morally reprehensible, and moves towards the bedroom ahead of him. His teeth dimple his lower lip as he sneaks one last glance at Mace, who offers a tired smile in response. 

No sense pretending he’s not smitten with the man.  

“I just think it’s funny how,” Anakin starts, thinking he’s found momentary weakness in Mace’s expression, but Mace uses the force to sweep Anakin’s feet out beneath him so he topples onto the bed, melodrama forgotten.

For now.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [on Tumblr](https://clonewarsandchill.tumblr.com/post/163262453306/weakness-anakinmace). Come talk to me about Mace Windu, because I love him. :)


End file.
